The options proposed by the Government for the policing of this part of the country following an enforced scrapping of the West Yorkshire Police Force are both far from acceptable.

There are obvious major operational hurdles in the way of combining the West Yorkshire and North Yorkshire forces. The halves of the joint area which would be created by this amalgamation have very little in common. One is largely rural, the other is densely populated and urban. The two require very different methods of policing. There would seem to be little logic in merging them.

The second alternative, though, is even worse. It is important that policing is on as local a basis as possible, so any suggestion of an enormous pan-Yorkshire force covering Humberside as well as North, South and West Yorkshire must be resisted. It would be huge, remote and unwieldy. It could push up administrative costs while weakening the level of service the police are able to give to the public at a time when there are already concerns about it.

What is more, it could open the door to more of the same and lead to the introduction of regional government by stealth. There is every chance that John Prescott, the deputy Prime Minister, would see the launch of a huge regional police force as a way of levering in other large, strategic organisations, particularly health, on a pan-Yorkshire basis. Any local control or influence would be greatly diluted.

A combined West Yorkshire/North Yorkshire force would be far from ideal, but on balance it would seem to be the lesser of two evils - if there really is no other choice.